Mathematics in Action Algebraic

Graphical and Trigonometric Problem

Solving 5th Edition Consortium for
Foundation Mathematics Solutions
Manual
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Mathematics in Action Algebraic Graphical and Trigonometric Problem Solving 5th Edition Cons

SECTION 2 CHAPTER NOTES

These notes provide a brief description of the theme and focus of the individual Activities in the textbook.
We have tried to share with you many of our classroom experiences with this material, including areas you
might wish to emphasize and questions with which many students encounter difficulty. However, the best
advice we can give you is to read carefully each activity before class. You will certainly have your own
ideas on how best to explore a given topic with your class – as a whole class activity, in peer groups, or in
pairs. You may also anticipate conceptual or computational difficulties and choose to head them off by
addressing them first in a pre-activity discussion or in a supplemental question, worksheet, or assignment.
Your students will be best served when you work in partnership with the text, permitting your own
emphasis and enthusiasm to help guide their discovery.

CHAPTER 1 FUNCTION SENSE

You may want to discuss the objectives of the course with your students on the first day of class. When
you give the students your course outline, you may want to include a section on the structure of the course.
The preface of the text also explains the nature of the course. Students should know that they will be actively
learning; that lecture will be at a minimum; that teamwork is stressed; that technology will be used; and
that the book is a collection of activities that relate to the world around them. They should know that
problem solving and critical thinking skills are practiced throughout the course. Skills are introduced as
they are needed in each activity.

CLUSTER 1 MODELING WITH FUNCTIONS

Activity 1.1 Parking Problems
Objectives: 1. Identify input and output in situations involving two variable quantities.
2. Identify a functional relationship between two variables.
3. Identify the independent and dependent variables.
4. Use a table to numerically represent a functional relationship between two variables.
5. Write a function using function notation.
This is a great activity to begin with since most students do have a parking problem on their campus. They
can relate to the number of cars in the lot at any given time. To help the students become acquainted, you
may want to ask them to form groups of three or four. Ask them to introduce themselves and begin reading
the activity. It is important that they do the work together rather than individually within the group. They
should discuss each question together to arrive at the best answer. As you walk around the room, you will
see that some groups are on their way while others struggle, especially with the concept of a function. You
may want to stop after Problem 3 and discuss the concept of a function in a whole class discussion.
Example 2 will help with your discussion. You may have to give a few more examples of functions as
models. Emphasize that the output is a function of the input. Groups, working together, can do Problems 4
and 5. You will need to stop and listen and question. Reinforcement of function notation will be necessary
in Example 5. Problem 10 ties this activity together and may be completed in groups. Vocabulary words
such as function, variable, input, output, ordered pair and how they relate must be understood. Thinking of
examples of functions is the most difficult part of the exercises for the students.

17
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18 SECTION 2 CHAPTER NOTES

At the beginning of the next class period you may want to give each group an index card to write one
example of a function defined verbally from Exercise 11. This begins your next class with group
discussions to determine which student’s example will be used on the card and offers you the opportunity
to reinforce the concept of a function by discussing with the whole class whether each group’s choice was
a good one.

Activity 1.2 Fill’er Up

Objectives: 1. Determine the equation (symbolic representation) that defines a function.
2. Determine the domain and range of a function.

To begin this activity, you may want to ask students to gather in the same groups or you may want them to
meet more students in the class. All students may not have purchased or borrowed a calculator by this
class period. Ask them to form groups making sure there is at least one person in their group who has the
graphing calculator. A general introduction to the calculator may be necessary to show students how to
input fractions, use the parentheses, the negative sign and the exponent. A whole class discussion and
calculator demonstration using the cost of a fill up as the model and introducing the calculator to create a
table works well in this activity. The function notation is expanded when writing the relationship between
two variables in symbolic form. Students will need help in the transition to function notation in Problem 5.
The difference between domain and practical domain and range and practical range should be clear to the
student. Representing the domain and range using inequality notation and/or brackets/parentheses should
be noted. Problem 11 ties the activity together and can easily be completed in groups. The emphasis is on
the numerical and the symbolic form of the representation of a function.

Activity 1.3 Graphically Speaking

Objectives: 1. Represent a function verbally, symbolically, numerically, and graphically.
2. Distinguish between a discrete function and a continuous function.
3. Graph a function using technology.
The focus in this activity is the graphical representation of the function. Students should be able to do
Problems 1-3 in groups. Scaling should be reviewed as they graph the data points in Problems 1 and 3.
Ask the students if the points should be connected to form a line on the graph. A discussion of discrete
versus continuous functions is appropriate here. This will be the first time for many students to use the
graphing calculator to set a window and graph the function. Students will need help in setting an
appropriate window for the data given. This activity will give you the opportunity to summarize Activities
1.1-1.3 on representing a function verbally, numerically, symbolically, and graphically.

Activity 1.4 Stopping Short

Objectives: 1. Use a function as a mathematical model.
2. Determine when a function is increasing, decreasing, or constant.
3. Use the vertical line test to determine whether a graph represents a function.
A whole class discussion of the definition of a math model is important. The trace feature of the graphing
calculator is explored to determine an exact value of an input. If the window is not defined or a table is not
given (Exercises 6 and 7), students have difficulty in setting the window for the function. Increasing and
decreasing and constant functions can be completed in groups. A class discussion about the vertical line
test with examples provides reinforcement of this concept.

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 SECTION 2 CHAPTER NOTES 19

Activity 1.5 Graphs Tell Stories

Objectives: 1. Describe in words what a graph tells you about a given situation.
2. Sketch a graph that best represents the situation described in words.
3. Identify increasing, decreasing, and constant parts of a graph.
4. Identify minimum and maximum points on a graph.
This activity works well as a group project. Together, you may want to do Example 1 at the beginning of
the activity. To test their communication skills after they have spent time in groups completing the
activity, assign one question per group and give them a few minutes to decide who will speak for the
group or if each person will have a part. Have them go to the front of the class and explain to the class
their problem. You may want to give points as a group grade for the presentation. Include communication
skills as part of the grade. If you give them until the next class before presenting, you may have a better
product. Students should be able to describe the increasing and decreasing and constant parts of these
functions as well as point out any minimum or maximum points.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED?

HOW CAN I PRACTICE?

CLUSTER 2 LINEAR FUNCTIONS

Activity 1.6 Walking for Fitness

Objective: 1. Determine the average rate of change.
Students are able to complete this activity easily with their group. The notation for rate of change as well
as the concept of rate of change should be discussed with the whole class. Students will question whether
to leave the rate of change with a denominator of 1 or the original denominator.

Activity 1.7 Depreciation

Objectives: 1. Interpret slope as an average rate of change.
2. Use the formula to determine slope.
3. Discover the practical meaning of vertical and horizontal intercepts.
4. Develop the slope-intercept form of an equation of a line.
5. Use slope-intercept formula to determine vertical and horizontal intercepts.
6. Determine the zeros of a function.
Students will have questions as they progress through this activity with their group, but for many it is a
review from high school or a previous college course and someone in the group usually can help. It is
important that the student understands the concept of slope as a rate of change. Many students have never
thought about the practical meaning of the slope and vertical intercept in a contextual setting. An explanation
of why we use the words vertical and horizontal intercept rather than x and y intercept is appropriate in this
activity. The slope-intercept form of a linear equation is easily applied in Problems 7-8. Problem 11 will
test the students’ understanding of the concepts in this activity. In the skills section of this guide there is a
review worksheet on solving linear equations and inequalities.

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out and bring me in."

But the only person who saw Racky in the yard was Dabby, the cook
in the Trent house, next door, where Rodney and Addie lived. And
Dabby caught a glimpse of the rocker between the sheets on the line. She
knew the old chair belonged to Grandma Harden.

"I guess they've been cleaning the chair cushions with gasoline,"
thought Dabby, "and they put them out in the yard to air."

Dabby only had a fleeting glimpse of the rocking chair between the
flapping clothes. If she had thought it was running away of course she
would have given an alarm, and perhaps have hurried out to stop it. But
she did not give it much thought because, a moment later, the telephone
bell rang, and Dabby hastened out of the kitchen to answer it.

So it happened that no one really saw the rocking chair get through
the hole in the fence, which trick Racky did a few minutes later. It was
hard work for the chair to escape from the yard. If it had been a kitchen
chair, with legs that had no curved rockers fast to them, it would have
been easier.

"But one can never succeed unless he tries," said Racky to himself.
"And I am going to try very hard!"

So he rocked and swayed to and fro, straining at his legs and

reaching out with his arms—oh, yes! the rocking chair had arms, of
course—and at last he was through the hole in the fence.

"I am free at last! Free!" exclaimed Racky in his own kind of a voice
—a sort of squeak, peculiar to some rocking chairs. "I am free! No more
shall I be sat on by fat, old ladies, though I really love Grandma Marden.
But I cannot stand it to be cracked apart and then stuck up in the attic
with the junk. I am running away at last!"

The chair was now in the open lots back of the two houses in which
the four children lived. All about were dried weeds growing, for summer
had passed, it was now late fall, and, as Weezie had said, it would soon
be Christmas, or at least Thanksgiving, and we all know Christmas
comes after the turkey holiday.
 "How wonderful it is to be free—to do as one pleases!" cried Racky,
with a happy little laugh. "I wonder what adventure I shall have first?"

As he rocked along, something rattled beneath his seat cushion.

"Ha!" cried the chair in surprise, stopping short, "is one of my legs
coming loose?"

He felt about with his arms and was glad to find that all four legs
were still firmly in place, as were the two rockers. Then Racky felt
beneath the cushion and found Grandma's glasses.

"She left them with me when she went to ask about the chocolate,"
murmured Racky. "Well, I can't take them back, for if I did I might not
get another chance to run away. I don't want to leave them here in the
lots, either, for it will snow, soon, and they will be covered up. I guess I
shall have to take Grandma's glasses with me!"

Starting to rock again, Racky moved on and on over the lots, through
patch after patch of dried weeds which tickled his legs and made him
laugh in glee. For he was very happy because he was running away.

"Ho, for the jolly adventures!" sang Racky to himself.

All of a sudden, from a patch of weeds at his right arm, there came a
strange sound. The weeds shivered and shook, though there was no wind
to cause them to do this.

"Something is coming!" whispered Racky to himself, stopping short.

"I wonder if it is Grandma chasing after me, to make me go back, or if it
is an adventure I am about to have? I wonder?"

The noise grew louder and the weeds shook harder.

ADVENTURE III

EXCITEMENT IN THE HOUSE

 Racky stood still in the middle of the lot, his four legs held stiffly
under him and his arms rigid at his sides.

What was going to happen?

Suddenly, out of the tangle of frost-killed weeds rushed—Thump, the

shaggy dog belonging to Rodney Trent—belonging, also, to his sister
Addie; and to Nat and Weezie next door. The dog belonged to all four
children, equally, though, in the beginning, Mr. Trent had bought the
puppy for Rodney.

"Oh, it's you; is it, Thump?" asked Racky in a low voice, for the
chair, the stove and the dog could talk to, and understand, each other.

"Yes, it is I," barked Thump, who, at times, was very careful about
grammar, for once he had been to school, as I have told you. "But what
in the world are you doing out here, Racky?" asked the dog.

Racky looked carefully around, before answering, to make sure

neither Grandma nor Lizzie was coming after him. Then, rocking a bit
closer to Thump, who stood in the patch of weeds, with his head thrust
out, the chair whispered:

"I am running away!"

"Running away!" barked Thump.

"Yes! I can't stand Grandma's treatment any longer."

"Did she scratch you, or stick pins in you, or pull your tail?" whined
Thump. "No, she couldn't pull your tail," he made haste to add, "for you
haven't any. But what did she do to you to make you want to run away?"

"She sits on me too hard!" answered the chair. "Poor Grandma—it

isn't all her fault," added Racky with a sigh, "it's just because she is
getting too heavy and fat! It's too bad, for otherwise, she is such a jolly
old lady. And I'm sorry about her glasses, too! But I am going to run
away! I have already started."

"So I see," barked the dog, coming out of the weeds and walking
around the chair. "You are on your way. But what do you mean about
Grandma's glasses?"

"She left them in between my cushions," answered the chair. "I didn't
dare go back with them, and I don't want to leave them in the lot for it
may snow. Will you take them back to her?"

Thump thought this over for a moment. He was very fond of

Grandma Harden, for she had given him many a juicy bone. He would
have been glad to do her the favor of returning her glasses, but, all of a
sudden, Thump stiffened his tail and barked:

"No! I am going to run away myself!"

"You are?" cried Racky. "When, where and with whom?"

"I am going to run away now—with you!" barked the dog.

"Oh, good!" exclaimed the rocking chair. "I thought I would have to
go alone, by myself. It will be much more jolly to have company. We can
have many adventures, and talk about them. First," he went on with a
little laugh, "when I heard that noise, and saw the weeds moving, I
thought an adventure was coming out. But it was only you, Thump."

"Yes, I have been roaming around in these weeds looking for a bone I
buried last week," said Thump. "But I can't seem to remember where I
hid it. Yes, I guess I'll run away myself! Rod wouldn't let me come with
him this morning. I'll show him I don't have to stay home unless I want
to! I'm going to run away!"

"You know all about it; don't you?" asked the chair, who felt a bit
envious of the dog. "You have run away before."

"Oh, yes," answered Thump, as though running away was an old

story with him. "I went off with Gassy when he ran away. We had good
times together!"

"And now you're coming with me!" murmured the rocking chair.
"How fine that will be! What jolly adventures we shall have!" And he
laughed until he nearly tumbled over backward.
 "Come on then," barked Thump. "We had better get as far off as we
can before they start to chase us, as they may. Did anyone see you come
away?"

"No," answered Racky. "Grandma was out in the hall, and Lizzie
went into the laundry from the yard, just as I slid out the back door. No
one saw me leave."

"Good!" barked Thump. "It will be all the mysteriouser."

"What's mysteriouser?" asked Racky.

"It means strange," explained Thump, who was a bit proud that he
had once been in school, though he didn't stay long.

"Then why don't you say strange?" asked Racky.

"Because mysteriouser is a much more stylisher word," answered the

dog. "But let's start running away some more. It's a good thing none of
them saw you leave!"

"Yes, indeed!" agreed Racky, and he began to sway again, following

Thump across the lots, for the dog, having no rockers on his legs, could
go a bit faster than the chair.

But if no one saw Racky leave the house, his absence was soon found
out, or discovered, as Thump might have said. For Grandma came back
in from the hall to mix the chocolate to put on the cake, and when she
did not see the rocking chair where she had left it, with her basket of
mended stockings on the floor beside it, the old lady cried out:

"Why, my goodness!"

"Is the cake burned?" asked Nat's mother, who was on her way back
up stairs.

"No, the cake isn't burned," answered Grandma. "I took it out of the
oven before I went to ask you where the chocolate was. But my rocking
chair is gone!"

"Your what?" asked Mother Harden.

 "Racky—my traveling rocker," went on Grandma. "I brought it out to
the kitchen to sit in, while I darned the stockings and watched to see that
the cake didn't burn, but now it is gone!"

"Oh, is that all?" laughed her daughter-in-law. "I thought something

had happened." And there really had, as was soon found out. "I suppose,"
went on Nat's mother, "that Lizzie thought you were through with your
rocker and has carried it into the living room, where you nearly always
sit in it. Lizzie must have taken it."

"What did I take?" asked Lizzie, coming up, just then, from the
laundry, in time to hear this last talk. "What did I take, Mrs. Marden?"

"Grandma's rocker," was the answer.

"I had it here in the kitchen, to sit in while I watched the cake baking,
and mended the children's stockings," added the dear, fat, old lady. "Did
you carry it out, Lizzie!"

"Why, no ma'am, Mrs. Marden, I didn't touch your chair," was the
quick answer. "I've been down in the laundry, almost all the time,
excepting when I was in the yard hanging out the clothes. I didn't even
know you had brought your chair to the kitchen."

"It's very queer," said Grandma, looking about. "And my glasses are
gone, too!" she added, as she put her hands to the top of her head where,
sometimes, she pushed back her "other eyes," as Weezie used to call
them.

"Where did you leave your glasses'?" asked Mother Marden.

"In the cushions of the chair. I slipped them off to go ask you about
the chocolate. And now the chair is gone and my glasses are with it. Dear
me! It is very strange!"

"Why, nothing could have happened," declared the mother of Nat and
Weezie. "If Lizzie didn't take the chair, some one else did."

"I didn't, and I don't believe you did," said Grandma, looking at her
daughter-in-law. "And Racky certainly couldn't have rocked off by
himself, I'm sure!"
 "What about the gas stove?" asked Lizzie quietly.

"Eh?" exclaimed old Mrs. Marden.

"I say what about the gas stove?" repeated Lizzie.

"Whatever does the girl mean?" asked Grandma in surprise.

"It was before you came to live with us," went on the maid. "Mr.
Marden ordered a new gas stove. Mr. Zink, the plumber, loosened the
pipes on the old stove. And when he went away to get the new one, the
old stove ran away, all by itself, it really did!"

"Oh, what utter nonsense! A fairy story!" laughed Grandma. "I

suppose a junk man came and carried off the old gas stove, and the
children pretended that it had gone off by itself to have adventures;
wasn't that it, Helen?" she asked the mother of Weezie.

"Well," was the slow answer, "the gas stove certainly disappeared.
The children declared they found it in the woods, several miles from
here. But their father insisted the junk man must have taken it away by
mistake, and that it fell out of his wagon in the woods."

"No, it didn't!" declared Lizzie, firmly but with the respect due to her
mistress. "That gas stove ran away by itself. And it came home on the
back of an elephant, with Thump and the children; didn't it?" she asked.
"You can't deny that, Mrs. Marden. The stove came back on an
elephant!"

"Did it, really!" asked Grandma. "I have heard the children talk about
such a happening, but I supposed they were making it up."

"Well," said Mother Marden, as if she did not like to admit it but was
obliged to, "the old gas stove certainly came home on an elephant's
back."

"But how in the world—?" began Grandma.

"It was a trained elephant, that had escaped from the circus," said the
children's mother. "And it picked up our boy and girl, and Rodney and
Addie, as well as Thump the dog and the gas stove."
 "Really!" exclaimed Grandma. "That is quite strange, of course, but
it's very natural. I can understand how that happened. But this is
something different. My glasses have vanished, and my rocking chair has
gone away, but I'm sure it didn't run off by itself."

"Yes it did!" declared Lizzie, but in a low voice, so neither of the

ladies would hear her. "That rocker ran off by itself, you'll find!
Something happened to hurt its feelings, just as happened to the old gas
stove. This is a very queer house," she went on, shaking her head as she
went down into the laundry again. "A very queer house! Strange things
happen here! I wouldn't be surprised to see the piano go flying out of the
window some day, or the old couch walk off the front porch! No,
indeed!"

But Grandma was sure Lizzie had carried the rocker out of the
kitchen, and had forgotten about it, or else that Mother Marden had done
so.

"But I tell you I wasn't in the kitchen this morning until just now,
Mother!" said young Mrs. Marden. "You must have taken the chair and
carried it out yourself!"

"No!" said the old lady. "But we'll look around and find it!"

However this was more easily said than done, and, though soon an
excited search was being made, the old rocker could not be found. It was
neither down cellar, up stairs nor in the attic.

"Dear me! What could have become of it, and my glasses?"

exclaimed Grandma.

"It walked away, I tell you!" insisted Lizzie.

"Nonsense!" cried Grandma, and the children's mother said the same.

"There must have been some one in the house," went on the old lady.
"Perhaps a tramp came in and carried the rocker away."

Just then there was a noise on the rear porch, and Lizzie cried:

"Maybe that's a tramp now!"

 But when, still more excited, the three of them hurried to the back
door, they only saw Nat and Weezie coming home from school for their
noon lunch.

"Where's the surprise, Grandma?" asked the little girl.

"Is it a chocolate cake?" shouted Nat. Then, all at once, the children
knew that something very strange had happened. They could tell this by
the looks on the faces of their mother, their grandma and Lizzie.

"Nat, run down to the corner, and bring back Policeman Paddock!"
said Grandma, suddenly.

"A policeman—what for?" gasped Weezie.

"A tramp has taken my rocking chair and my glasses!" said

Grandma, sternly. "I want the policeman to chase after him and get them
back! Hurry, or it may be too late!"

But before Nat could hasten down to the corner, up the front steps
came big Policeman Paddock himself, swinging his club.

"There's something the matter in the lot back of your house, Mrs.
Marden," said the officer to the children's mother. "There's a great
commotion in the weeds, and I hear a dog barking! Don't be frightened
but I'll just go through your kitchen and over your back fence and see
what it's all about!"

The policeman started to run through the house, while Weezie and
Nat looked at each other with wonder in their eyes.

ADVENTURE IV

SLIDING DOWN HILL

Not for long, though, did Nat and Weezie stand there. It was all so
exciting—so thrilling! The idea of having a policeman come in your
house, to rush out toward the back lots where something was happening!
Nat and Weezie had never known anything like this.

"Come on!" called the little boy to his sister. "Let's go see what it is!"

"Do you think it will hurt us?" asked Weezie, holding back a little.

"No!" answered her brother. "Anyhow, isn't Policeman Paddock here

with his club? And Mother and Grandma have gone out to see about it!"

This gave Weezie courage, so she followed the officer out into the
yard, close after Nat. The children saw the policeman crawling through
the hole in the back fence—the same hole through which Racky the
rocker had gone but a little while before. Only they did not know this.

"What's the matter, Nat?" asked Rodney, looking over the side fence.

"Is somebody going to be arrested?" asked Addie.

She and her brother had come home from school to eat their lunch,
just as had Nat and Weezie. They had heard the loud talk in the house
next door, and had seen the blue-coated officer run out of the back door
with his swinging club.

"Is somebody going to be arrested!" Addie again inquired.

"Oh, I don't guess so," answered Weezie. "Anyhow, it's only a

tramp."

"A tramp came in while we were at school," explained Nat, "and took
Grandma's rocking chair and her glasses. She sent me after a policeman,
but he came in, anyhow, before I could run after him!"

"He said the tramp was in the lots back of our house," added Weezie,
"and I guess he's going to arrest him."

"No, he didn't say there was a tramp there," corrected Nat, "but he
said there was a lot of scrabbling around in the tall weeds, and he heard a
dog bark."

"Maybe it's Thump," suggested Rodney as he and his sister jumped

down off the boxes upon which they had climbed, to look over the side
fence, and ran toward the back. Their fence also had a hole in it through
which they could crawl to the vacant lots.

"Yes, it is Thump!" went on Rodney as the children hurried to the

clump of tall, dried weeds, around which now stood the policeman and
the mother and grandmother of Nat and Weezie. "It is Thump! There he
comes!"

And, surely enough, out of the weeds ran the dog, barking and
wagging his tail. He seemed much excited over something.

"Is the tramp there?" called Nat.

"Did you arrest him!" Rodney wanted to know.

"Are Grandma's chair and glasses there?" was the question Weezie
asked, while Addie called to Thump:

"Be still! Stop barking!"

"No, children," said Mother Harden, "there isn't any tramp here, nor
anything else. And the rocking chair isn't here—how could it be?"

"It could be if it ran away like our gas stove did," said Nat.

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Policeman Paddock. "Who ever heard of a gas

stove running away?"

"Ours did," said Weezie, but the policeman did not hear her, or, if he
did, he paid no attention, for he was playing with Thump, letting the dog
catch hold of the leather thong on the club.

"I guess it was a false alarm," went on the officer as he started back
toward the fence. "I was walking along," he explained, "and I looked
through, between the houses, and saw something moving in the tall
weeds. Then I heard a dog barking and I thought something had
happened. But it hadn't."

"Yes, something happened," said Grandma Harden. "A tramp got in

our house, while I was baking a cake, and stole my rocking chair and my
glasses!"
 "Stole a rocking chair!" cried the officer. "That's a queer thing for a
tramp to take! And glasses, too—that's stranger still!"

"My glasses were in the chair cushions," explained Grandma. "And

what I am going to do without them I don't know! I can't see to read, sew
or bake. You'll have to finish chocolate-frosting that cake, Helen," she
told Nat's mother.

"Yes, I'll do that," young Mrs. Harden promised. "But it is very

strange about that chair. We were just sending for you, Mr. Paddock, to
ask if you had seen any tramps about, when you came running in."

"No, I haven't seen any tramps," said the policeman, "but I'll be on
the lookout for any of the ragged chaps who have your chair and
glasses," he told Grandma. "I'll be watching for them!"

"I hope you catch them," exclaimed the old Mrs. Marden.

By this time the two ladies, and the policeman, had made their way
back through the hole in the Marden fence, the officer to go out on the
streets, up and down which he marched all day, keeping order. And Mrs.
Marden wanted to get the children's lunch.

As for the two boys and the two girls, they lingered about the clump
of weeds, near which Thump also stood, his head cocked on one side and
his ears held up.

Oh, Thump could tell a strange story had he wished!

"I wonder what Thump saw here that made him bark so hard?" asked
Nat.

"Maybe a strange cat," answered Rod. "Or maybe a big rat."

"Oh—a rat! I'm going in!" cried Weezie, making a dash for the fence.

"So am I!" echoed Addie, so the two boys were left there with
Thump.

"Ho! Ho!" laughed Nat. "Rats won't hurt you!"

 "Not with Thump around," declared Rod. "Look!" he called to his
chum, "see how the weeds are all trampled down, as if there had been a
fight here."

"Maybe Thump was fighting another dog," suggested Nat.

"Maybe," agreed Rod. "And look at these two funny marks in the soft
ground, as if somebody had dragged a sled along."

"Nobody would drag a sled now," objected Nat. "There's no snow on

the ground, but maybe it will snow soon, for it's getting colder."

"Those are funny marks," went on Rod. "I wonder what made them?"

But Nat could not tell, though, soon after that, he remembered and
then something very strange happened.

Thump sniffed about in the weeds, he sniffed at the queer marks in

the soft ground. Then the boys' mothers called them to lunch.

"I could tell what those marks are if I wanted to," laughed Thump to
himself as he followed his little master into the yard. For the dog could
understand boy and girl talk, though he could not speak that language.
Thump talked by barks, whines and by wags of his tail.

True it was that Thump could have told about the queer marks had he
wished, for they were made by the runaway rocking chair. After Racky
had told the dog he was going away, and after Thump said he, too, would
go, all of a sudden Thump remembered something, and turned back.

"I can't go with you, Racky," barked the dog, as the old, brown chair
started to sway away.

"Why not?" asked Racky. "I thought you said Rodney didn't treat you
kindly—that he wouldn't let you come with him to-day—and that you
would be glad to run away again, as you did with my friend the gas
stove."

"Yes, I said that," softly barked Thump, "but I just happened to

remember that Rod and Nat are going fishing to-morrow, or maybe this
afternoon, and they are going to take me with them. I love to go fishing
with the boys, so I guess I won't run away this time."

"All right," spoke the rocking chair, "then I'll have to run away alone.
But don't tell anybody which way I went, Thump."

"No, I won't tell," promised the dog and then, all of a sudden, he
grew much excited and whispered: "Quick, Racky, rock away as fast as
you can! I see a policeman passing along the street between my house
and your house. Maybe he is coming after you! Rock away! I'll chase my
tail here in the weeds and bark loud, and the policeman will look at me
and he won't see you. That will give you a chance to rock away and hide!
Quick! Go on!"
 "QUICK, RACKY, ROCK AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"

"Thanks! I will!" said the chair. So away he rocked through the stiff
weeds and bushes, off toward the forest and the lake.

Now Policeman Paddock, though he had been seen by Thump

passing along the street, had no notion of coming after the rocking chair.
He did not even know Racky was running away. But Thump thought he
did, and the dog began making a great fuss so the officer would look at
him and not try to stop Racky.
 And, surely enough, hearing the noise in the weeds, Policeman
Paddock came rushing in, as I have told you, but all he saw was a dog.
By this time Racky had rocked far enough away to be out of sight.

"I'm glad they didn't catch me!" murmured the chair to himself as he
traveled on over the vacant lots. "If it hadn't been for Thump, though, my
adventures would be at an end before they had fairly begun.

"But now I am off to see the world! No more fat old ladies, however
nice they are, can sit on me, making me creak and groan. I am going to
do as I please!"

So, holding his arms stiffly against his sides, and settling his
cushions down in his seat and against his back, away rocked Racky. It
was getting colder, though the sun was shining brightly, and at first the
chair, who had lived, all his life, in a warm house, felt a bit chilly.

"But if I rock faster, perhaps I will get warm," he told himself, so he

swayed to and fro as hard as he could. And the more he rocked the
farther on he traveled, for that is the way of some rocking chairs. Soon
he felt a warm glow all through his legs and arms.

"Yes, I ought to begin my adventures very soon," thought Racky as

he rocked over the fields toward the woods. "I wonder what will be the
first one?"

And, almost before he knew it, an adventure happened to him.

He was swaying along, not thinking of any danger when, all of a

sudden, he found himself on top of a rather steep little hill, which led
down to the edge of a wide brook. The hill was covered with grass,
which was now dried because Jack Frost had touched it with his cold
fingers; and this grass was slippery.

All at once, Racky rocked himself up to the top of this hill, and,
before he could stop himself, he began sliding swiftly down. Faster and
faster his smooth, polished rockers slipped along the crisp grass as a boy
coasts down a snow-covered hill on his sled. Faster and faster slid Racky.

"Oh, I wonder what will happen to me?" thought the chair. "This is
certainly an adventure. But it will not be a very jolly one if I splash into
that brook at the foot of the hill! Oh, dear! I can't stop myself!"

And straight on toward the brook slid Racky!

ADVENTURE V

THE SINGING GIRL

Amid a clearing in the forest, and not far from the edge of the brook,
stood a little cottage where lived the Singing Girl. She was the daughter
of a wood-chopper who, every morning, tramped off through the lanes of
tall trees to cut fire-sticks which he sold in the town. The Singing Girl, as
she was called, remained at home in the cottage, after her father had
gone to cut wood. She washed the dishes, she swept the floors and she
dusted the furniture until her father came home at night, when she would
have his supper ready.

As she worked about the cottage, the Girl sang—jolly little songs she
would sing, about anything and everything, for she was very happy,
though she and her father were poor.

"La, la, la!" the Girl would sing. "Tra, la, la!" Just simple little things
like that.

"My Singing Girl is happy!" the wood-chopper would say as he

tramped off in the forest.

Now it was toward this cottage of the Singing Girl that Racky, the
runaway rocker, was sliding as he coasted down the grassy hill, at the
foot of which was the wood-chopper's home.

Faster and faster down the slope glided the rocking chair. He could
see the water of the brook sparkling in the sun.

"What shall I do? How can I stop myself from sliding into the brook
and drowning?" thought the chair. He did not dream that, being made of
wood, he would float like a cork, and not sink. "I didn't know adventures
were like this—so dangerous!" murmured Racky, shivering, for the
warm glow had left him. "I wonder what Gassy would do if he were
here?"

But the stove was not there to ask, so Racky just had to keep on
sliding. He was close to the brook now. Another second or two and he
would splash in. But just then the Singing Girl ran out of the cottage
humming:

"La! La! La, la, la!"

She had finished washing the dishes, and was bringing out the
drying-towels to hang on a bush in the sun when, looking up the hill, she
saw the rocking chair coming down.

"Oh, isn't that wonderful!" laughed the Singing Girl. "A chair sliding
down hill! I never saw such a thing before. Never! Never! Never! Turoo!
Turoo! Turoo!" she sang merrily.

"It would be much better if you would stop your singing, sweet as it
sounds, and save me from going into the brook," thought Racky, though,
of course, he said nothing that the Girl could understand. "Save me! Save
me!" begged the chair, in his own, queer talk. "I ran away to have
adventures, but I don't want to be drowned! Save me!"

And then, just as if the Singing Girl had heard, and understood, she
ran out until she stood in front of the sliding rocker. With a quick motion,
like a cowboy with a lasso, the Girl flung her drying-towel around the
top of the chair's back, and there she held him firmly.

"Whoa there, you funny sliding-down-hill rocker!" laughed the

Singing Girl. "Whoa there, my pony chair! I caught you just in time!"

And, surely enough, that is just what she had done. For, in another
second or two, Racky would have been in the brook, so slippery was the
grassy hill and so shiny were his rockers.

"Now then," said the Singing Girl, looking up the slope, "are there
any more pieces of furniture coming down? If there are I'll be ready for
them."
 "No, I am the only one," said Racky. "I ran away all by myself
because I got sat on so hard. Thump, the dog, started to run away with
me, but he turned back to go fishing with the boys. Maybe he'll come
along later. But there is no more furniture!"

Of course the Singing Girl could not understand what Racky said. To
her it sounded only like squeaks, creaks and snaps, such as you may
often hear in a chair when you sit on it. That is the time when chairs,
couches, tables, stools and other things speak to you; only it isn't
everyone who knows what they say.

But the Singing Girl, after standing and looking up the hill a little
while longer, could see no more furniture coming down, so she took the
lasso-towel off the back of Racky and, humming another jolly little song,
she carried the chair into the cottage.

"I could rock myself in there alone if she would let me," said the
chair. "I don't need to be carried. But go ahead, if you like."

Racky had made up his mind to stay in the cottage over night. His
slide down the grassy hill, and his narrow escape from splashing into the
brook, had made the runaway rocker a bit nervous.

"I'll stay here to-night," he said to himself, "and in the morning, as

soon as I get a chance to slip away, I'll travel on."

But of course the Singing Girl knew nothing of this.

"Well, you are a nice, old-fashioned rocker!" she said as she looked
at the chair and hummed a little tune. "We have no rocker in our cottage,
and when Father comes home from chopping wood he will be glad to sit
himself down and rest on your cushions. They look very soft!"

With that the Girl seated herself in the old, brown rocker and began
swaying to and fro, singing: "La! La! La!"

"Dear me! I hope she doesn't break Grandma's glasses!" thought

Racky, for he could feel the spectacles in between his seat and back
cushions. "The old lady sat on me hard, it is true, but I wouldn't like her
glasses to be smashed!"
 Racky wished he could speak the talk of real people, that he might
call out a warning to the Singing Girl, but he could not say a word.
However he creaked and squeaked and rattled as best he could, hoping,
in that way, to make her more careful.

But she only laughed as she rocked to and fro, saying:

"My, but you are an old chair! You must have come out of Noah's
Ark, by the way you creak! And you are a traveling chair, too!" went on
the Singing Girl, for she noticed that, as she rocked, the chair was sliding
over toward the side of the cottage.

"Indeed I am a traveling chair!" said Racky, who could understand

what the Singing Girl was saying, even though he could not talk to her
himself. "I am quite a traveler! Not that I have gone as far as Gassy, my
friend, the stove, in the laundry, for I have only just started. I am a
runaway, traveling rocker! Just wait! In the morning you will not find me
here, for I am going to travel on again."

To do that, Racky had made up his mind. He was going to rock away
in the night, as soon as he knew the Singing Girl and her father were
asleep.

"Well, I must not stay here all day rocking!" cried the Singing Girl
with a laugh. "I have my work to do! But you are such a nice, easy, old
rocker I love to sit in you!"

Up she jumped, but when she looked at the soft cushions she sat
down on them again with a little bounce.

"Easy! Easy!" cried Racky. "You'll break Grandma's glasses!"

However, the spectacles were deep between the cushions, which

were quite thick, and so the glasses came to no harm.

Moving the rocker away from the middle of the cottage floor, the
Singing Girl began to sweep and dust, just as Racky had often seen
Lizzie doing her work back in the Happy Home he had left.

All day long the Singing Girl worked about the cottage, and Racky
stayed just where she put him. For he did not want to let her know that